ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors set out to provide a guide to teachers through the complex area of the development of language and communication skills, and to build a content framework for a language and communication curriculum. A framework rather than a complete curriculum is provided for two reasons. First, the authors are still a long way from an exact knowledge of the development of language and communication skills either in normal or in mentally handicapped children. Secondly, the precise objectives selected by a teacher depend as much on the characteristics and abilities of the child as they do on the curriculum framework. The first steps towards a curriculum for language and communication are bound to be a combination of many different and supposedly contradictory ideas from many different sources. Concepts which form the basis for a group of objectives are given, followed by a definition and examples, then by general comments on teaching approaches.
